Famous Jews in the Army. Jewish War Heroes from 1775.

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Jews fought on both sides during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). Some of the most notable fights during the three years' Boer war — such as the Gun Hill incident before the Siege of LadysmithSiege of Ladysmith The Siege of Ladysmith was a protracted engagement in the Second Boer War, taking place between 30 October 1899 and 28 February 1900 at Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal, Colony of Natal.... — involved Jewish soldiers like Major Karri Davies. Nearly 2,800 Jews fought on the BritishUnited Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe.... side and the London Spectator counted that 125 were killed. [Jewish Encyclopedia]

Around 300 Jews served among the Boers during the second Boer War and were known as Boerjode: those who had citizenship rights were conscripted along with other burghers ("citizens"), but there were also a number of volunteers. Jews fought under the Boers' Vierkleur ("four colored") flag in many of the major battles and engagements and during the guerilla phase of the war, and a dozen are known to have died. Around 80 were captured and held in British POW camps in South Africa. Some were sent as far afield as St. Helena.

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The number of Jews at the front was disproportionately large—it amounted to some thirty thousand, owing to the fact that, in accordance with the usual military regulations, the Jewish recruits from the Western governments were generally despatched to Siberia, so that, at the very outset, they were near the theatre of military operations. Disproportionately large was also the number of Jewish physicians in the reserves. Out of the thirty physicians who were mobilized in Kiev twenty-six were Jews. In Odessa, the Jews furnished twenty-one physicians out of thirty. [Dubnov THE JEWS IN RUSSIA AND POLAND. V3 p 95.]
Discrimination of Jews in the Russian army during military service before 1917
Joseph Trumpeldor [November 21, 1880 – March 1, 1920]
During the Russo-Japanese War, he participated in the siege of Port Arthur, where he lost his left arm to shrapnel. Trumpeldor subsequently received four decorations for bravery including the Cross of St. George, which made him the most decorated Jewish soldier in Russia. In 1906 he became the first Jew in the army to receive an officer's commission.

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When the United States declared war against Germany in April 1917, Jews represented only 3.27 % of the total population, yet they made up 5.73% of the country armed forces. From more than 250,000 Jews served approximately 3,500 Jews were killed.
[Seymour Brody., 1995]

1. Sergeant Benjamin Kaufman – Congressional Medal of Honour and 9 foreign government awards for bravery.
2. Sergeant Sam Dreben – Distinguished Service Cross, the Croix de Guerre, Militaire medal.
3. Captain Elkan Voorsanger - Purple Heat, Croix de Guerre.
4. Sergeant William Sawelson - Congressional Medal of Honour
5. Sergeant Sidney G. Gumpertz - Congressional Medal of Honour.
6. Corporal Louis Abend - Croix de Guerre
7. Sergeant Benjamin Shapiro - Croix de Guerre
8. Private Abraham Krotoshinsky
9. Major General Milton J. Foremen - Distinguished Service Cross for bravery.
10. Colonel Abel Davis
11. Lieutenant Benjamin B. Prager.
    see also:
    The Jewish Legion (1915-1918) Military formation of Jewish volunteers in World War I, who fought in the British Army for the liberation of Eretz Yisrael from Turkish rule

1. Arthur Mayer 1914 Iron Cross, Second class.
2. Berthold Guthmann was born in 1893 and volunteered for military service in WWI, as did his two brothers (one of whom was killed at Verdun). He became observer and gunner on military aircrafts and was awarded the Iron Cross (Second Class), the Tapferkeitsmedaille (Medal for Bravery), and the Verwundetenabzeichen (equivalent to the Purple Heart).
3. Friedrich Rüdenberg was awarded the Iron Cross in mid-1917. Immigrated to Palestine in 1936.
4. Wilhelm Frankl is the most well known German Jewish fighter pilot of World War I. He received the Pour-le-mérite.
5. Fritz Beckhardt received the Iron Cross (First Class), the House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords, the Hessian Medal of Bravery, the Hessian Order of Ernst Ludwig, the aviator's badge, a silver cup for bravery, and various badges for accomplishments and wounds. After Germany lost the war, Beckhardt refused to deliver his plane over to the enemy and instead flew it to Switzerland.

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During World War II, hundreds of Jewish soldiers and officers fought for the Finnish army, which was part of Nazi Germany. Finland refused to help the Nazis in the so-called "resolving the Jewish question" without becoming deprived of their Jewish citizens of rights or freedoms. As citizens of Finland, the Jews fulfilled their military duty. Three Finnish Jews were awarded the German Iron Cross for their courage and bravery on the battlefield. These were officers Captain Solomon Klass and Major Leo Skurnik and a Jewish girl, Dina Polyakoff, a nurse from the women's paramilitary organization Lotta Svärd. All three Jews refused to accept German awards

1. Maurice Rose, Major General, (World War II) Negotiated the unconditional surrender of the Germans in Tunisia, Commanded 3rd Armored Division: the first division to cross the German border and the first to breach the Siegfried line, killed in combat.
2. Mark Wayne Clark, Major General, commander of Fifth U.S. Army World War II
3. John B. Oakes, Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, World War II; Bronze Star, member of O.S.S. Office of Strategic Services; also Croix de Guerre, Medaille de Reconnaissance (France), and Order of the British Empire
4. Robert Rosenthal, lieutenant colonel, USAF in World War II.
5. Sergeant Meyer Levin was killed in 25. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Silver Star, Oak leaf Cluster, the Purple Heart and Certificate of Merit.
6. Alexander Pechersky (22 February 1909 – 19 January 1990) He was the organizer and the leader, of the most successful uprising and mass-escape of Jews from a Nazi extermination camp during World War II;
   which occurred at the Sobibor extermination camp on 14 October 1943. At that time he had the rank of lieutenant quartermaster (class II) in the Soviet army.
   In 2013, Alexander Pechersky was posthumously awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
   In January 2016, he was posthumously awarded the Russian Order of Courage

During the Second World Wars Jews played an active part that exceeds the proportion to their numbers in the general populations. Many will know the Jewish Brigade (1944-46), the 51st (mainly Jewish Palestinians) Middle East Commando, the SIG (Special Interrogation Group) Commando in North Africa, the Jewish members of SOE, and other Jewish groups of World War Two.

Below some information from the book “Striking Back: A Jewish Commando's War Against the Nazis” by Peter Masters, 1997
No 51 Middle East (Jewish) Commandos - consisting of about 87 German speaking Palestinian Jews - was to be formed into "a Special German Group as a sub-unit of M E Commandos with the cover name 'Special Interrogation Group', to be used for infiltration behind the German lines in the Western Desert, under 8th Army. 19 of the 87 died.
Below some names:
Dov Cohen, Bernard Lowenthal (3i) and Israel Carmi (who was later an officer in the Jewish Brigade and the Israeli Army (MT). Karl Kahane/Cahanna (3a Dolph Zeintner and Philip Kogel, Maurice "Monju" Tiefenbrunner a.k.a. Tiffen, Ariyeh Shai a.k.a. aka Sheinik/Sheikin, Rosenzweig, Corporal Drory, Goldstein and Rohr, Isaac "Harry" Levy, Peter Gottlieb, Vladimir Peniakoff and many others.

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Roger Steven Briskin, corporal Fred Zedeck, captain Joseph Ira Goldstein, lieutenant

1. Joseph Liebgott, served in Easy Company, 506th Battalion, 101st Airborne Division in the Second World War, Technician (T/5)
2. Robert Magnus, Former Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, Retired July 17, 2008
3. Sam Dreben, served in the in the United States Army in the Philippines, Panama Canal Zone the Pancho Villa Expedition, and World War I, also fought in Honduras Guatemala, Nicaragua, and the Mexican revolution. Noted for his prowess with machine guns.
4. Edward Ellsberg, finished first in his class at the United States Naval Academy (1914), ultimately rose to rank of Rear Admiral.
5. Jack H. Jacobs, Colonel (United States) Medal of Honor recipient
6. David "Mickey" Marcus, (World War II), Army lieutenant colonel, West Point graduate, Divisional Judge Advocate, Division Commander, attended the Big Five meetings, volunteered to join D-Day airborne assault without formal training. Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star, and British decorations. Volunteered to Israeli Army to defend against Transjordan Arab Legion. Became first Israeli Brigadier General, and served as Commander of Jerusalem front.
7. Mark Polansky, NASA, USAF (Ret.), Space Shuttle Commander
8. Hyman Rickover, United States Navy Admiral, Father of the Nuclear Navy.
9. Marvin A. Sibulkin, Sergeant Major U.S. Army 1958-1983; Legion of Merit, Bronze Star (9th Inf Div), Bronze Star 1st Oak Leaf Cluster (Vietnam), Defense Meritorious Service Medal; 3 Army Commendation Medals.
10. Michael Yury Tarlavsky, Captain, US Army 5th Special Forces Group; Killed in action during Operation Iraqi Freedom
11. Norton A. Schwartz, 1973 graduate of the "Air Force Academy", 19th Air Force Chief of Staff

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1. Lieutenant General Jack Farj Rafael "J. F. R." Jacob PVSM (1924 – 13 January 2016),
   was an Indian Army officer. He was best known for the role he played in the creation of Bangladesh in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971
   Born in 1924 in Calcutta, British India, Jacob’s family hailed from a long line of Baghdadi Jews who moved to India from Iraq in the middle of the 18th century.

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Martin Gilbert estimates that 6,000 Jews volunteered to fight for the Union; and an additional 1,200 fought for the Confederacy. Roughly 250,000 Jews fought for the United States in World War I, another 550,000 in World War II. See Gilbert, Atlas of Jewish History (New York 1976).

godson of King Edward IV, a knight and commander during the War of the Roses[The first of the Tudors: a study of Henry VII and his reign (Taylor & Francis, 1981) by Michael Van Cleave Alexander, page 97]

DSC, Royal Marine, founder of Modern SBS. Lieutenant Colonel Peter George "Pug" Davis DSC (9 December 1923 — 18 August 2011) was an officer in the Royal Marines. He was considered a 'founding father' of the Special Boat Service.

World War I British Indian Army Victoria Cross recipient. He was the first person of the Jewish faith and the first officer of the Indian Army to receive the VC during World War I.

JewishEncyclopedia.com - Major-general in the British army; born in 1794; died Jan. 6, 1861; son of Benjamin Goldsmid. He entered the army in 1811 as cornet in the 12th Light Dragoons, and the following year went on active duty in Spain, where he continued to serve until the close of the war in 1814. He was present at the cavalry affairs of Castrajon, Quintare de Puerta, and Monasterio, and at the battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, Nivelle, and Nive, and was awarded the silver medal and four clasps. He served also during the campaign of 1815, and was present at Waterloo. In June, 1826, he retired on half-pay with the rank of major, but was gazetted lieutenant-colonel Nov. 23, 1841; colonel June 20, 1854; and major-general Oct. 26, 1858.

was a Jewish and an English recipient of the Royal NavyVictoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

World War II bomber pilot/POW and recipient of the Military Cross for numerous escape activities; a German-Jewish refugee living in London at the outbreak of hostilities; born Georg Franz HEIN in Hanover; committed identity theft in order to join the RAF; was naturalized a British citizen in 1946